Spoke Pony recap: Jeff Kerkove was sick and a huge blizzard was coming so Kraig and I left very early Friday. At times around the Iowa/minnesota border we were driving 10mph the snow was so bad. After Des Moines all was good. We arrived in K.C. and checked into the Holiday Inn Express. Then we headed to the race site to set-up our pit area and preride a lap. It was 70 during our preride - we were pumped. Landahl Park Reserve is VERY rocky and technical. The course had one sustained climb near the end but otherwise the climbing was ok. After the preride we picked up groceries and headed back to the hotel. We ate in our room and got to bed early. We arrived at the race site around 8am Saturday with a start time of noon. Kraig did the 3 hour race and completed 3 laps. I did the 6 hour race and did 5 laps. Neither of us had any mechanicals except I did have my right cleat come loose on my 5th lap. I didnt get it exactly where it should be but it was good enough to finish the lap. There were 50 entrants in the 3 hour solo and 35 in the 6 hour solo as well as a few teams in each. The final results will be posted in a few days.
 

My right leg after the race. Gotta love the rocks and landahl!
 

Hollywood

Hollywood fixed the front wheel on my Trek SS today. He also fixed up my KHS SS from the Old Pueblo race. I still need him to "tune-up" and install a computer on my Sugar. Looks like I'm going to the Spoke Pony Showdown with Kraig Anderson and Jeff Kerkove. Should be a good time. The heartland series is following a different format this year - all epic type events. I did the Spoke Pony last year in the old format - I ran out of water and totaly bonked. I'm planning on riding my KHS soft-tail SS in this years 6 hour race. I need to go and list a bunch of stuff on ebay - check it out.

Saturday ride

My plan this weekend was to ride each day at 4:00 when I finished working. Saturday I called my friends Scott and Kraig to see if they wanted to join me. Scott (Cave) is having some issues with his back so he hasnt been riding until he get that taken care of. Kraig already had a group ride planned for 2:00. Kraig ended up changing his group ride until 4:00 so I could go and we all met at my store. We left at 4:00 and headed towards the river, they were going to ride Black Dog Road to Bloomington and back. I was going to ride with them and then go off on my own. About 10 minutes into the ride I am riding in the middle of the pack on my Trek SS. The guy on my left thinks he hears a car and deceides to look back, as he is looking back he vears right, towards me. He ends up riding into me and sticking his foot in my front wheel. Needless to say I went down hard. It was towards the bottom of a hill so we were carrying some speed. My whole right side has some good road rash. My right elbow is the only thing that is really bothering me today, it is really stiff. My front wheels looks like a taco. I unhooked my front brake and wobbled back to the store. No more group rides with rookies! Today is going to be 50 and I'm not going to ride so I can heal up. I wanna do the Spoke Pony 6 hour race in 2 weeks.

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pic from 24 hours in the Old Pueblo